Marina Novi, Novi Vinodolski

Marina Novi is the second of two brand new marinas in the small town of Novi Vinodolski, near Senj, Croatia. As readers will have read on our earlier blog posting on Mitan Marina, we couldn’t resist a slight detour on our way to Lošinj, to see how the marinas had progressed since we last saw them, in the early stages of construction, two years ago.

Clearly Marina Novi shares the same locational advantages as its neighbour, Marina Mitan, and it’s also very close to the main road with no steep bendy narrow road to negotiate. It offers 200 + permanent berths for vessels up to 18 metres in length, 10 dry berths and space for visiting yachts up to 40 metres.

24 hour security, CCTV surveillance, 40 tonne travel lift, laundry service, café, restaurant, smart one bedroom apartment and reception are all available on site, with a fuel station 50 metres away and a supermarket nearby. It already seems to be filling up quite well and for more information, check out the marina’s own website  Marina Novi

To see what Marina Novi  looked like two years ago, have a look at our  2016 posting: Croatia Cruising Companion - Novi Vinodolski: Not One But Two New Marinas

Mitan Marina, Novi Vinodolski

Readers of sister blog Croatia Online may have realised I have been pretty excited about my June 2018 trip to Lošinj, the primary purpose of which was to improve my Croatian language skills by taking an immersion course with The Croatian Language School.

This time I flew from Southend to Zadar with Flybe, normally every Saturday in the summer season, and then hired a car for the week.

[This link should take you to the flights’ search page - Flybe Flight Search]

I couldn’t resist the idea of checking up on the two new marinas that had been under construction on my last trip, in 2016, and so I came off the motorway not long after I had turned onto it, and took the windy (sometimes in both sense of the word!) coast road, through Paklenica, to Novi Vinodolski, stopping only at Karlobag for a quick snack and to change into my summer gear. The road was more or less deserted apart from the occasional kamikaze motorcyclist but it’s still a much slower route than the motorway though much more scenic.

Marina Mitan is right by the coast road – there’s  no long descent down a narrow serpentine road -  and the principal car park is actually on top of the main marina buildings. You can drive down to the berths to drop stuff off but the few parking spaces, lower down by the buildings, are reserved for disabled parking.

It looks very smart and new and is more or less complete, with already roughly a third of  berths occupied or reserved. There’s a bistro at one end, nestled well into the rocks, whilst at the car park end, there’s a reception, nautical shop and marina office. Adjacent to the roots of the main pontoons are the toilet and shower blocks and workshops. Soon there will be a fuel station, by the breakwater, and a beach and apartments a little further away from the main bay and the root of the breakwater. Three kilometres from the marina is an enormous hangar, under 24 hour surveillance, for dry storage, and there’s a repair and service centre next door.

Visitors without their own boat can charter one of the new ZAR speedboats currently choosing from the latest ZAR 85 SL model,  two ZAR 65 boats and two ZAR 57 boats.

As for location,  Rijeka is your nearest airport, approximately 30 km away on Krk island. By road it’s pretty handy for visitors from Zagreb and central Europe but it is quite a long way from the nearest motorway exit. Coming down from the north you’d probably take the Rijeka exit and drive south along the coast road; from the south, probably the Senj exit.

Once there, the inhabited  islands of Krk, Cres, Lošinj,  Rab, Pag, Olib, Silba and Ilovic are all within easy reach and then you have the best of the Adriatic to explore further south. Novi Vinodolski itself is about three kilometres away thought not a very pleasant walk I would imagine if the only route is along the coast road.

There are 180 berths for yachts up to 15 metres in length; larger yachts can berth on the outside of the inner breakwater and mega yachts along the outside of the 240 metre outer breakwater. Depths are between 3 and 14 metres. All permanent berths have lazy lines, and electricity and water connections.

The daily 2018 rate for a wet berth for a 12 metre yacht is €60

Example 2018 prices, including VAT where applicable, for a 12 metre yacht (maximum beam 4.19m) for one year are:

Dry berth inside hangar €4,000

Dry berth outside €2,600

Wet berth €7,375

Wet berth 6 months/dry berth 6 months €5,975 (including lift in and out, high pressure wash and transport to dry berth area)

Wet berth rates include 16A electrical connection, drinking water, use of toilets and showers, video surveillance, internet connection and parking for one vehicle.

The bora does blow strongly in this region but  Muroskva Bay, the site of the marina which initially gave its name to the marina, before it became Mitan, is reasonably well indented and sheltered, and the breakwaters protect all but the narrow entrance close to the shore.  

Completing so much in such a short space of time is an impressive feat and, given the constant demand for berths in Croatia, I imagine it will fill up quickly. However it probably is suffering a little, in these early days, from the fact that there is a second new marina within a few kilometres and we’ll be reporting on that here soon.

To see what Mitan Marina (provisionally named Marina Muroskva originally) looked like two years ago, have a look at our  2016 posting: Croatia Cruising Companion - Novi Vinodolski: Not One But Two New Marinas

Follow this link to go direct to the marina website: Mitan Marina

To find out more about my Croatian language immersion course go to this posting on our sister site: Croatia Online - Learning The Language....Why?!

And to go straight to the Croatian Language School website, follow this link:  Easy Croatian

***

The main picture at the top is looking towards the marina exit/entrance, taken from just in front of the marina reception.

The first photo below shows the main marina buildings and car park on top. The second is of the bistro.

 

ACI Croatia Announces New Krka Anchorage

ACI Marinas, Croatia’s largest chain of marinas, majority owned by the government, has just announced a new organised anchorage near its Marina Skradin. As far as I am aware this is a “first” in terms of organised anchorages for ACI.

Skradin itself lies at the gateway to the spectacular Krka waterfalls and is also very popular with yacht owners for its fresh, rather than salty, water. Hidden away, a few kilometres up the Krka estuary from Šibenik, it’s also very sheltered.

According to the latest ACI newsletter, Anchorage Vozarica is open all year round and has 18 buoys for vessels up to 15 metres in length. It lies opposite the marina – looking at the photo above, it’s off to the right behind the protruding woodland on the right which is looking unusually green because the photo was taken in winter. I’ve estimated a waypoint at the centre of the buoy area as follows: 43°48.88’ N 15°55.42’ E

There’s no indication of price on the newsletter and I don’t think full details have been added to the main website yet but, as a rough rule of thumb, anchorages tend to be about 50% of the equivalent marina berth fee. If you stay here you are entitled to use the facilities at the marina.

The following link will take you to the newsletter:

 ACI Newsletter - New Anchorage

And this link takes you to our last round up of ACI news including some significant investment in a new marina and modernisation of existing marinas:

ACI Marinas Continues To Invest

ACI Marinas Continue To Invest

ACI Marinas, Croatia’s state owned marina company, owning twenty two of the country’s 50+ marinas, certainly seems fired up for 2018. This follows a recent pattern of intense activity and investment following several years of relatively little.

Here’s just some of the news:

First and foremost, from a strategic point of view, the government seems to have done an about-turn on privatisation by adding ACI to its list of assets considered of strategic importance. All the signs were, just a couple of years ago, that the chain of marinas was preparing itself for sale to private investors, with Turkish Dogus Group, already a minority shareholder, a front runner. However now it seems the government has decided to consolidate ACI’s leading position in the marina industry and keep it to itself.

The second bit of news is the announcement of a brand new marina on Pag island, providing approximately 300 new berths, the construction of which is due to take place over 4 years. It will be in Novalja, the party capital of the island

Meanwhile, a little further north, ACI’s marina in Rovinj is soon to emerge from a complete and major reconstruction, with the primary aim of being able to handle today’s superyachts. That also means providing the highest standard of ancillary facilities in order to achieve the ambition of being ACI’s first five anchor marina, indicating a marina of the very highest quality.

This massive investment needed to be ingeniously realised given the limited space. It will result in nearly 200 berths, the largest of which will accommodate yachts up to 35 metres in length, with bigger yachts being able to visit and berth along the outside pier. Other things being equal, ACI Marina Rovinj should be ready for business by the beginning of this season.

And finally, a bit of old news – In July 2017 ACI announced the opening of a new golf range at ACI Marina Dubrovnik. The facility, a first for marina based golfers, consists of two mini golf courses and a golf training course that extends on the area of a tennis court.
To see just how far ACI has come recently, I looked back at an article I wrote for Boat International’s Superports magazine just over two years ago and, on the whole, it’s done pretty well keeping to an ambitious schedule of improvements and new investments.

ACI’s latest investment programme started with the replacement of all the pontoons at ACI Marina Cres, work which is now complete. Soon, a twenty second marina will be added to the network with the completion of a new marina in Slano, near Dubrovnik, which will cater for yachts up to 25 metres in length. In autumn 2016, work will start on ACI Marina Opatija to extend the marina and provide 42 dedicated superyacht berths for yachts up to 60 metres or more. Next will be a major extension to ACI Marina Dubrovnik to provide an additional 45 berths for superyachts, and a reconfiguration of the traditional stone building on site, an old summer palace, into a 5-star boutique hotel.

ACI Marina Pomer, for smaller yachts, is having a major facelift, due for completion by summer 2016, and ACI Marina Rovinj, also currently for smaller yachts, will undergo an extensive reconstruction and upgrade of facilities, starting in late 2016, which will provide 22 berths for yachts between 27 and 30 metres and should result in it becoming ACI’s flagship and first five anchor marina, as categorised (and rarely awarded) by the national regulating authority.

Also on the agenda for 2016 is the roll out of a gastro project which started in 2015 with the grand opening of “Navigare”, a newly-refurbished restaurant in ACI Marina Milna on the island of Brač. Key elements are a modern interior design concept and consistently high catering standards focusing on traditional local cuisine with a modern twist. ACI Marinas Pomer, Cres, Slano, Žut and Piskera are next in line for a gastro makeover that will eventually be introduced in all 22 marinas.

For more information on ACI marinas go to http://www.aci-marinas.com/en/

And keep an eye out for progress on a brand new ACI website under construction – a new form of premium Yachting, Lifestyle & Luxury Magazine named ACI No. 1. http://www.acino1.com/

Today’s lead photo shows the “old” ACI Marina Rovinj; the photo below shows Novalja bay on Pag island, the site of the next new ACI marina.